Protective bollards are well known and widely used throughout industrial buildings, warehouses, and other commercial buildings to protect objects, property, and people. Bollards often include a simple steel post that is positioned adjacent to an area the object or property is in or an area that a person may be in to protect the objects, property, and/or people in the area from damage or injury. Bollards often protect objects such as utilities, electronics, machinery, buildings, shelving, doors, entry ways and pedestrians from accidental collisions with vehicles such as forklift trucks.
Bollard bases (such as the known commercially available bollard base shown in FIG. 1) are also well known and have been widely used in the construction industry and the concrete flooring industry for the installation of bollards in and around buildings such as warehouses. The known bollard base 10 shown in FIG. 1 is configured to be placed on a sub-grade (not shown in FIG. 1) before the concrete (not shown in FIG. 1) of the floor (not shown in FIG. 1) is poured. More specifically, this known bollard base 10 includes a solid cylindrical steel top plate 12, a solid cylindrical steel bottom plate 14, a plurality of steel anchors 16 extending downwardly from the top plate 12, and a centrally positioned steel cylindrical tube 18 integrally connected to and extending between the top surface of the bottom plate 14 and the bottom surface of the top plate 12. The bottom surface of the bottom plate 14 is placed on the sub-grade before the concrete of the floor is poured. The concrete is then poured such that, in an ideal scenario, the top surface of the top plate of the bollard base is level or substantially level with the top surface of the poured concrete. After the poured concrete hardens, since the top surface of the top plate 12 of this known bollard base 10 is exposed, a bollard can be welded to the top surface of the top plate 12. If the bollard is later damaged but the bollard base 10 is not damaged, the damaged bollard (and associated welding) can be cut or ground off this bollard base 10 and a new bollard can be attached to this bollard base 10.
One known problem with this type of known bollard base is that it is not adjustable. If the sub-grade is not of the exact specified height or not within allowed tolerances or is not level or substantially level, when the bollard base is placed on the sub-grade, the top surface of the top plate of the bollard base may not be on the same level as the top surface of the concrete floor after the concrete is poured. To address such situations, such bollard bases are sometimes raised and/or leveled using one or more shims or wedges.
Another known problem with this type of known bollard base is that it does not enable air to escape when the concrete is poured around this bollard base. Air becomes trapped under the top plate and voids under this top plate are created.
Another known problem with this type of known bollard base is that it requires extensive pre-planning of the bollard base based on the exact thickness of the concrete. In other words, this known bollard base must be made to certain dimensions to account for different thicknesses of the concrete floors. This requires extensive pre-planning and ordering of the bollard bases and that the different bollard bases be manufactured for different construction projects.
Accordingly, there is a need for new bollard bases that solve the above problems.